Français
The 21st of January, President Reignault and the Executive Board, had the great pleasure to welcome in our premises Mr. Massimo Baldinato, member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Antonio Tajani, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship. Within the Tajani Cabinet, Mr. Baldinato was notably in charge for the drafting of the European Commission’s “Entrepreneurship 2020” Action Plan. As you know, CEPLIS has actively participated in the public consultation that fed back to the Action Plan in question, considering that it represents a unique opportunity to recognise and support the big impact of our sector in the progress of European Entrepreneurship.
The visit, organised in collaboration with our friends of EURELPRO(Correspondent organisation of CEPLIS), gave us the opportunity to discuss in depth the working Group the Commission intends to “set up [in order] to assess the specific needs of liberal profession entrepreneurs in relation to issues such as simplification, internationalization or access to finance.”
Mr. Baldinato pointed out that the Action Plan initiated by Commissioner Tajani, is one of the rare documents that reflects the wide and precious impact of our professions in the European Economy. Our guest agreed with president Reignault (UNAPL) that there is still a lot of work to be done in order to fully recognise the impact of the Liberal professions as employers and growth makers.
Answering a question from our First Vice-president, Mr. Rudolf Kolbe(ECEC/CLGE) on the Commission’s Working Group for the Professionals, Mr. Baldinato confirmed that the later should not be too “formal”, noting that nothing is decided yet as per its composition. Replying to a remark of our Director General, Dr Koutroubas, on a paragraph of the Commission’s Communication concerning barriers to entry in liberal professions, our guest made clear that the Commission understands very well the difference between undue and unjustified barriers on the one hand and regulations aiming at protecting the clients and patients on the other.
Following the meeting, the Executive Board of CEPLIS has decided to set up an internal Working Group chaired by Mr. Gaetano Stella (Confprofessioni) with the aim to closely follow the implementation of the Action Plan, in close collaboration with the Tajani Cabinet.
It is interesting to stress, in that context, that Mr. Baldinato insisted on the need to move quickly in order to achieve our goals by the end of the Current Commission’s mandate. (2014)